Celebrating HMA Honoree, Pat Viles

Jun 8

“What the Museum does here affects the entire community. Art is very important. Museums are very important in the situations we face today. They are a place to learn about the past and the future. This Museum is about love and sharing and participating. It changes your life.”

— Pat Viles

Pat Viles is an international artist who has served as an HMA Board member. She has held exhibitions of her artwork in HMA’s galleries over the years and is an active participant in HMA’s bimonthly Coffee in the Coe events. Her kindness and generosity are reflective in her volunteerism and the ample baked goodies she supplies to the Museum. She is passionate about HMA and would describe it to others as a gem.

Pat was born in Arkansas and grew up all over the US. Her father was a carpenter and did a lot of work for the government. In high school, Pat’s family moved to Clinton, Tennessee, a small town outside of Knoxville, about 4 hours west of Hickory. After graduation, Pat attended King University in Knoxville and ran into an old classmate on the bus one day. Six months later they were married.

Pat’s husband Art worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers and moved his business to Hickory in 1968. Pat’s art began as a hobby, drawing and working with pencils and crayons with her two kids. For her birthday one year, Art gifted her with watercolor paper and a book on how to paint, but Pat did not become serious about her craft until 23 years ago. After a 3 month stay in Europe, Pat returned home to Hickory, unpacked her suitcase and made the decision to trade in globetrotting for a career as an artist. Pat has exhibited her work throughout the world, including China, Switzerland, Japan, Korea, France, Germany and Belgium. She also had a solo exhibition at HMA in 1995 and a retrospective in 2016.

Pat’s relationship with HMA really began when she served as a board member and helped to fundraise and transform Hickory Museum of Art from its downtown location to its current building, the old Hickory High School.

Pat’s first exhibition at HMA, Pat Viles: North Carolina is my Home, was held in the Museum’s Shuford Gallery and featured 27 bodies of work. Artist events for that exhibition brought people from China into the Museum for an evening, for a demonstration on Pat’s artistic process with ink medium. Her second exhibition at HMA was a career retrospective in the Museum’s Coe and Windows galleries.

Pat is an original Coffee in the Coe member, a bimonthly round table discussion that takes place in HMA’s galleries focusing on HMA's exhibitions and latest news in the art world. She also is a member of guildHMA, served as an active HMA board member in the past, has taught classes out of her home studio and in the Museum galleries and hosted fundraisers for HMA. One of Pat’s hobbies, baking, is regularly celebrated at the Museum when cookies and fudge are dropped off and supplied for staff, meetings and Museum events.

When asked what she values about her membership at HMA, Pat states, “What the Museum does here affects the entire community. Art is very important. Museums are very important in the situations we face today. They are a place to learn about the past and the future. This Museum is about love and sharing and participating. It changes your life.” Pat’s impact on HMA can certainly be described using the same sentiments.

Pat acknowledges herself to be a very private person. When asked how it feels to be an HMA Honoree, she jokes that she can handle it. This Museum has been a part of her life since she’s moved here, and she has loved every minute of it. Join us in honoring her and Joann Wilfong at the HMA Honors event, Sunday, August 14th from 2 PM-4 PM in the Coe Gallery.